


Admiral Halsey's House

by Acidqueen



Category: Tom Clancy's The Division
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:47:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27168851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Acidqueen/pseuds/Acidqueen
Summary: A few hours in the life of the White House Cat, Admiral Halsey. Set in the universe of Case Blue.
Relationships: Manny Ortega/Alani Kelso
Kudos: 3





	Admiral Halsey's House

**White House Base of Operations**

  
  


Admiral Halsey stood from his catbed and stretched, starting with a back-arch and then stretching out to his full length one leg at a time before starting the daily patrol of his house.

The White House has often been referred to as “America’s House”--but if one were to ask Fleet Admiral William Frederick “Baby Bull” Halsey the Purr, he would tell you that it’s really  _ his _ house. The large orange cat began his rounds by wandering upstairs to the mess. He entered the room with a trill, and one of the humans saluted him before giving him head-scratches. The Admiral rewarded him by rubbing against his legs and giving him a wide feline smile before moving on to inspect the rest of the mess. He put his head up and sniffed the air, trilling again. Something smelled good!

Halsey walked into the cooking area and scanned for a clear spot to perch. He leapt onto one of the metal tables, then clambered up to the very top shelf where he had just enough clearance to stretch out and watch the humans...and perhaps score some of whatever they were making. A human walked by with a butterfly on her head--a butterfly! Halsey reached out with one large paw and batted at it, and the human looked up at him. The butterfly moved too, and Halsey let out a very surprised “Mrrt??”

“Morning Admiral!” The human reached up and scratched his chin, much to his delight, then walked out of the cooking area with her breakfast. Halsey sniffed the air again and looked around until he spotted his target. 

Another human had moved away from a couple of strips of bacon, and Halsey took advantage of the moment, leaping to the counter next to the pan and reaching out with one large paw. He sank a claw into one of the bacon strips and quickly yanked it out of the pan and onto the counter in front of him.

“Admiral!” 

Halsey looked over and saw the human coming toward him, and grabbed his prize in his mouth before darting off from the cooking area to a sunny corner of the mess, where he sat down and started eating it. It was so tasty! He saw a shadow coming toward him, and looked to see the human that everyone called “Manny” sitting down at a nearby table. “Mrrrt!”

Manny smiled at him. “Hey there Admiral--got yourself some breakfast already, I see.” He chuckled, and Halsey wolfed down the rest of his purloined bacon before jumping up on a chair that he used as a platform to peek over the top of the table so he could see what Manny was having. “Oh no,” Manny told him, “you don’t get any of this. I don’t think cats even like oatmeal.”

Halsey huffed. How dare one of the humans in his house tell him that he doesn’t like something until he’s had a chance to try it! He reached out with a paw and poked at something on top of the “oatmeal”, then licked his paw. It was tasty, whatever it was...or perhaps that was the residue from the bacon. Either way, it was tasty. He slowly reached toward the tasty something again.

“Did you really just do that?” A couple of humans sitting nearby laughed as Manny looked at the cat in disbelief. “Oh fine, you want some butter? Here.” Manny dipped his spoon in the pool of butter atop his oatmeal and put a couple of drops on the table in front of Halsey. “And that’s all you get, okay?” Halsey licked at the drops of butter. It was still tasty--but not quite as tasty as the bacon.

Kelso sat down across from Manny. “Morning,” she said with a smile. Manny smiled back. Kelso looked over to Halsey. “Morning Admiral--you inspecting the fleet?” She and Manny reached over at the same time to pet the cat, Kelso on one side of his face and Manny on the other. Halsey gave them both headbutts and a trill, and sniffed their hands. They smelled like each other, and that made the Admiral happy.

“Careful,” somebody said, “He swiped some bacon from Ford already--yanked it right out of the pan!”

“Yeah,” Manny replied, “he wanted to give my oatmeal a try too.”

Halsey smiled as he gazed at Manny and Kelso with half-closed eyes. Kelso gave him a slow-blink and a headscratch. “You’re a ballsy cat,” Kelso said. “Just like your boy!” More humans came by to give Halsey pets and scritchins as they either went to sit down with their breakfast or bus their plates back to the kitchen. The sunbeam moved after a few minutes, and that meant it was time for Admiral Halsey to go back to his rounds. He stood and stretched again, then jumped down from his chair to wander to the West Wing. 

“Mrowr?” Halsey looked up at a human who was just standing there watching another group of humans walk by. The human glanced down for a moment.

“Hey Admiral! Can’t talk to you right now buddy, I’ve got guard duty.” Halsey responded by standing on his back legs and supporting himself against the human with his left forepaw while poking their arm with his right paw. The human shifted the thing in his hands a bit, leaving one hand free to give him a headscratch. “There,” the human said, “that’s all I can do. I’ll give you more pets later, promise!”

Halsey huffed a bit and sat next to the guard to groom himself. No sooner had he stuck one back leg in the air than he caught a flash of movement running into the Press Room. “Mrrrt!” The big cat charged toward the Press Room, and the scent of his target reached him: a mouse! A green-shirted human pulled up shirt as Halsey barrelled past them. The mouse darted under one of the TV cameras that were stationed at the back of the room. Halsey hunkered down and saw the mouse’s beady little eyes staring back at him. The cat whipped his tail back and forth while chattering at the mouse. “Ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek….”

“Uh oh,” Halsey heard Manny say, “The Admiral’s got something on scope!” The mouse took off, leading Halsey on a merry chase through the Press Room, under the seats and around the cameras and the podium, until he cornered it under a desk just outside the Cabinet Room. The cat reached out with one big paw and slapped the mouse, stunning it so he could pick it up by the tail. His tail stood proudly in the air as he carried his prize through the White House to the one human that he decided would appreciate it most.

Coop looked down at the stunned rodent that Admiral Halsey had just dropped in front of him. “Why Admiral,” he said with a chuckle, “is this for me?” He reached down and picked up the mouse by the tail--the rodent awoke at that moment, and splayed all four of its little legs out while its whiskers twitched nervously. “Yeah you little shit,” the Quartermaster said as he waggled a finger at the mouse, “you go back outside.” Halsey watched Coop take the mouse toward the White House gates and drop it outside to watch it run off toward the Mall. Coop shook his head and was laughing a bit as he came in. “Well Admiral,” he said as he petted the cat, “you caught a snack for a bald eagle. Good boy!” Halsey rolled over on his back and stretched out, and purred happily as Coop gave him a light tummy rub. Coop stood, and the cat rolled over to stand up and give him a headbutt and rub on his legs before moving on to his favourite spot.

ISAC watched on his cameras as the cat came into the server room.  _ Admiral on deck! _ the AI quipped through the speakers on one of the desks. A bosun’s whistle sounded, and a couple of the JTF techs in the room saluted. Halsey trilled a greeting to everyone and made rounds of the room to deliver headbutts and leg-rubs before leaping atop a server cabinet in the middle of the room. He groomed himself for several minutes, then curled up to take a nap. 

ISAC increased the processing power on several of the blades in that cabinet and tuned the fan speeds ever so slightly, so that the temperature atop the cabinet would rise by one degree. Halsey started to purr contentedly at the increase in warmth, then stretched one more time and splayed out atop the nice warm cabinet before going back to sleep.

_ Silly cat. _


End file.
